A Dangerous Attack on School Breakfast

Today, there are 474,000 New York City children whose families struggle to put enough food on the table. These kids are more likely to have health problems and are more likely to stumble in school. In-classroom breakfast is a practical way to ensure that as many kids as possible benefit from the most important meal of the day.

Yet according to the Food Research and Action Center, New York City is dead last among 26 large urban areas in school breakfast participation, even though 74% of the city's public school students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. And because there are millions of federal dollars approved to expand breakfast programs, righting that wrong does not have to cost the city anything.

Enter the city Health Department which, citing a study that suggests some students might be eating two breakfasts, wants to halt plans to serve more morning meals at school.